Haunted House in Plastic Canvas

Fun with plastic canvas!   I must admit that I totally ignored plastic canvas when it comes to needlepoint.  I don’t know why since I never gave it a chance.  Well…. I have been having a great time with this project and here are my in progress pics.

Of course, there were a few cutting errors — but plastic canvas is inexpensive.  I decided that the roof was to be stitched on the black canvas provided in the kit… wrong… but it sure looks great.

The walls were stitched as I would stitch any needlepoint project but since I didn’t follow the instructions provided I ran out of yarn.  No worries, I just substituted out some persian I had in my resource center.  But for the remainder, I did all stitching as instructed using half-cross.  I don’t think the coverage is that great using half-cross so I might think twice before I buy another Mary Maxim kit — but I could just sub the yarn before I even start.

Halloween Tissue Box & Emma Sampler

The walls of my tissue box house are in progress and I have been struggling with the window frames.  I didn’t like the look of using one strand of yarn – bad coverage — so I tried double wrapping and it was too messy.  My latest try is to pad the frame as I do the wrap.  It seems to disguise the scanty coverage of the yarn.  I think it will work.

The other project this week was the Emma Elliot Sampler. It looks wonderful –I am a huge sampler fan.  As I was stitching, I was following the chart and stitching the errors that were in the chart.  After a good look – with a magnifier – I think the chart has a few errors.  I ripped and restitched a couple of areas and I don’t really care if it is accurate to the original stitcher — I like it!

Back to Santa tomorrow..

 

Santa and Doing Challenges

So …. I have continued on with my Santa and filled in the holes in the background.  What a great looking guy!  

I have learned that the ongoing haed challenges are not for me. Normally I like to participate in challenges but this new style where you have to stitch a particular way and by page is not helpful.  I might be the only one that can see them but there are definite lines between the 10 by 10 blocks and between the pages. I was afraid of that and it is why I selected a smaller format chart.

And now I am thinking about next year and my 2017 stitching … I have pulled out a Mirabella called Savannah’s Curtsy, and I really want to do a Halloween by Tilton. I will post picks when I decide! 

Plastic Canvas – New For Me

Spook House Kit by Mary Maxim

I started learning needlepoint over 30 years ago but never stitched on plastic canvas. One of my coworkers is a fan and her pieces are pretty cute so I decided to give it a try.

Of course, the project that I “needed” was a discontinued kit by Mary Maxim so it took a little time to track it down. I found it on ebay and just started yesterday. The kit is called Spook House Tissue Box Cover. 

It’s fun!  Just like needlepoint but with a different order. Cut canvas first then stitch … I am still trying to decide why not stitch first then cut.  Regardless,  I am following the instructions – almost.  I am guessing that to save yarn it says to use half cross but even with plastic canvas I just can’t. I know the coverage will not be as good so it is likely that I will run out of yarn. 

I don’t know how long I can keep away from Santa.. I expect to have him back on the frame by the weekend.

Save

Save

More Mini Be Good

So I tried — but couldn’t help myself and went back to Mini Be Good – I have worked on nothing else.  This shows page 2 completed for the challenge.  This time I am really going to try to leave it for at least a few days.

 

Christmas In July – The End

I ended the  month with cross stitch ornaments —

Gingerbread Boy & Girl

These came from Kount on Kappie book 36.  I stitched them on 22 count hardanger one over one.  The white backstitch is two strands — I started with one strand and it seemed to dissapear, so I removed and restitched.  The background is backstitch using one strand.

Mini Be Good for Goodness Sake

I also continuted stitching Mini Be Good for the current HAED challenge and am about 60% done with page 2.

It was fun to work only Christmas theme projects fot the month on July.

Christmas in July Continues

Only a few days left for the Christmas in July themed stitching.

This past week I finished my gingerbread boy ornament. It would be safe to say that the red and green striped background took longer than the boy — well worth it.

 

And the next ten rows of page 2 of Be Good For Goodness Sake..

Santa with Snowman NP — Oops!

So…

Stitching was going along great on my Santa with Snowman project.  On Sunday I took a good look at what I had been doing and —

Bad Santa

I am not a fan of the bargello pattern, way too busy for the space it is in.  When I look at the photo and compare it to my stitching I realized that the chart in the stitch guide was not the same as the model photo.  The instructions used a step of two but the photo is smoother, less busy and used a step of one.  I removed all the stitching from the main body of Santa and started over.

Good Santa

As I stitched, I worried that I would run out of thread — I did start with a fresh card of Splendor. I had just enough Flair and plenty of Balger.  And it looks so much better….

Very Good Santa

Now to decide how much background to stitch. I’m not sure that I will follow the curve that is drawn but …. ???

Heartstrings Santa with Snowman & HAED Challenge

Continuing on…

I have had a  lot of fun with my Santa with Snowman canvas.  I am following the stitch guide in order.. this shows the completed face and beard. I stitched as directed in the guide.

The hat with the star on top — the guide shows half the number of metallic dots in the dotted swiss chart.  It needed more so….

The snowman —  so cute!  Stitched as charted except for the nose, I padded that so it would sit as high as the framed stars for the snowman body/head.

I put it away for a few days so that I would be able to get my 700+ stitches in on the HAED challenge piece, Mini Be Good For Goodness Sake…

 

A Little XS & A Little NP

I have worked on two different Christmas projects this past week.

This is a Pat Thode / Heartstrings needlepoint canvas called Santa with Snowman.  I am stitching from a kit by Fireside Stitchery that includes a stitch guide, threads and charm.  Overall, the stitch guide is quite good, I do not know if it is original or an expended version of the original stitch guide —  I wish that they included the original stitch guide from Pat Thode.  The are a few errors in the chart versus the completed photo so I would not recommend this for a beginner stitcher.  Also, it is one big bundle of compensation so you need to be comfortable with how to compensate for all of the decorative stitches.

My other project this week is the HAED Mini Be Good for Goodness Sake – it is being used for my HAED challenge project. The challenge is parking and I am going to try to complete about 770 stitches per week – that will be 10 rows of the page.